Trip 52: Šiauliai (Hill of Crosses), Lithuania

Trip date: Saturday August 25, 2013

The Hill of Crosses in Lithuania is located near the town of Šiauliai. It is estimated that more than 100,000 crosses have been left at this location.

All in attendance: Kristen and Eric

We left Sigulda and returned to Riga where we hopped on a bus to Šiauliai, Lithuania. There we stayed a single night in a pleasantly over-green room at Simona Guesthouse. We would stay only a quick night here since this was a short stop to see the Hill of Crosses.

The Hill of Crosses is a short bus ride from the main bus station and a few blocks from a stop. People have a long tradition of leaving crosses on this hill from all over the world. On this day, we saw many newly weds leave an engraved cross among the mass piles of crucifixes and Jesus status.

The weather was gloomy and cloudy this day which makes the photos look like they were taken at a graveyard for hoarders. The crosses are not placed into organized rows and sections but more so piled on in giant heaps. I found it really whimsical to see crucifixes nailed upon larger crucifixes nailed upon larger crucifixes and so on. A substantially large Jesus status would be donning at leave 4-5 rosaries and there was even a section just for Mary paraphernalia.

This was a quick stop enroute to our next destination near the Curonian Spit.

Trip 51: Gauja National Park, Latvia

Trip date: Thursday August 23- Saturday August 24, 2012

Sigulda and Cēsis are towns located in Gauja National Park - Latvia's largest national park. Here we stayed in Sigulda, enjoyed the sights of the park and dodged the presence of a sneaky cat.

All in attendance: Kristen and Eric

We walked to a guest house in a residential neighbourhood from the train station. The adorable old couple only spoke Russian and Latvian but a few hand gestures and a Russian thank you from Eric was all that was needed.

The first night, we arrived late enough that we could do little more than stop at a grocery store. We ate a Cili restaurant - a chain we had seen multiple times throughout our trip. Highlights included impossibly delicious kiploku grauzdini - a sort of fried dark garlic bread covered in garlic goodness.

The walls of the bedroom had a tiger-carpet-print and we had access to 100+ channels on satellite TV but the only English channels were radical-evangelical-american broadcasts. We comfortably settled for martial art movies dubbed in Italian all the while trying to coerce the landlady's cat to come cuddle with us.

The next morning we started our day before any sort of tourist information center open and began our hike with only a cartoony-billboard map for reference. We had to walk along a highway for most of the time but ended up by the Erglu (Eagel's) Cliff where we had a quick lunch on a giant brötchen.

We continued on the mossy path through the park. Never in my life had I seen so many different type of  mushrooms! A lot of elderly people were at the beginning of the trail mushroom picking. I went on a personal mushroom safari and Eric was patient enough to wait for me to take unnecessary amounts of photos.

We saw the red Turaida castle at a distance and saw the Gutmanis Cave. The sandstone walls of the cave are very soft and it's easy to make inscriptions on it.

We continued through the park and stop to see the Sigulda New Castle at the end of the day. We stopped by a wasp infested cafe and rested our feet.

We stayed an extra night at the guesthouse where a cat, who wouldn't give us the time of day the previous day, mewed adorably at our door to come cuddle. Although Eric and I don't typically have cat allergies, there was something suspiciously off about this particular cat!